MyRIO

Abstract

The National Instruments MyRIO is an embedded control device manufactured for students to integrate real-world engineering problems. The device offers a broad range of functions and capabilities. MyRIO provides a perfect platform for Industrial Computer System Engineering students to expand what they have learned throughout their degree. National Instruments has dedicated a lot of their resources to improve and provide support for their hardware. MyRIO makes it much easier to learn, understand and implement projects in such a short period. A lot of help is provided in various ways, such as inbuilt, online and learning sessions to improve the understanding of the device.

The main objectives of the thesis project involve learning and understanding the MyRIO device, creating learning guides to future students and integrate the device into an existing embedded application.

This report describes the hardware and software capabilities of MyRIO and how to integrate the device to control an inverted pendulum. The inverted pendulum apparatus is at Engineering and Energy Building 220 at Murdoch University. The device itself has been constructed from an old sliding door mechanism. There are a few sensors integrated into the apparatus to feedback information, such as an "Absolute Encoder" and "Incremental Encoder". The first part of the thesis is dedicated to understanding the various components and how they work. This gives a better understanding of the broader picture rather than isolating the issues.

An Inverted pendulum dynamic model is derived. The dynamic model is used to design and simulate the Linear Quadratic Regulator controller in Matlab. The same controller is implemented and commissioned in MyRIO to control the inverted pendulum apparatus. There were two parts to the control of the inverted pendulum. Only balance control is performed and commissioned due to various constraints. The swing-up control is recommended as future work.

Overall the project is a success, and most of the project objectives completed. For reasons that are explained, the time taken to learn, understand and implement inverted pendulum control was far greater than expected. Problems encountered can be narrowed down to some of the hardware issues faced and minimal support from the vendors. The main achievement is the next student does not have to go through the tedious exercise to gather valuable information to implement the inverted pendulum apparatus. All this information is well documented and available for future students.